What is 3/5 + 6/8?

Let's add

3

5

&plus;

6

8

Step 1

Of course, you can't add two fractions if the denominators (bottom numbers) don't match. To get a common denominator, multiply the denominators together. Then we fix the numerators by multiplying each one by their other term's denominator.

Now you multiply 3 by 8, and get 24, then we multiply 5 by 8 and get 40.

Do the same for the second term. We multiply 6 by 5, and get 30, then multiply 5 by 8 and get 40.

The problem now has new fractions to add:

24

40

&plus;

30

40

Step 2

Since our denominators match, we can add the numerators.

24 &plus; 30 = 54

The sum we get is

54

40

Step 3

The last step is to reduce the fraction if we can.

To find out, we try dividing it by 2...

Are both the numerator and the denominator evenly divisible by 2? Yes! So we reduce it: